Category Archives: Style

So, you’re trying to become more sustainable in your gardening. You’ve started composting and you have introduced low maintenance and native flora – but how do you get rid of those stubborn weeds?

If you’re not too crazy about dousing your beautiful garden in harsh weed killing chemicals, there are some proven alternatives to chemical-based weed killers that are worth trying.

The Importance of Natural Methods

Whenever you need some help to eradicate unwanted weeds or pests, it’s often a good idea to turn towards natural methods. Chemically based products can often pose a health risk to you and the environment, especially when not used properly. When using chemical weed killer, it not only eradicates the targeted weeds, but can also weaken trees and other plants in the area, leaving them to become susceptible to invasion by pests and other diseases.

Natural Options for Your Garden

Manual labour: sometimes the best way is the old fashioned way. Roll up your sleeves and settle in for a day of weeding. If you can, wait until after a bit of rain so that the ground is a little softer and the weeds easier to remove. Try to pull from beneath the soil, and use a trowel, butter knife or screwdriver to loosen any stubborn taproots.

Vinegar: a method best used in early spring, just as growing season begins. Mix one part white vinegar to five parts water and spray the solution on weed stems two to three times. If the weeds are flowering, spray the solution directly on the centre of the flower so they don’t seed and spread. Where possible, try use the spray on a day when sunshine is forecast for two consecutive days so the solution doesn’t get washed away.

Get mulching: mulch is a great and easy fix. It keeps your soil cool and wet and helps to eliminate any light that weeds need to grow. When spreading mulch, keep it around 5cm deep and off your lawn.

Boiling Water: sometimes plain old tap water will do the trick. For young weeds, or hard to reach ones growing in cracks and pavement, add a tablespoon of salt to boiling water and pour directly onto them.

Outnumber them: in your garden, all the plants are competing for resources and only the strongest thrive and survive. To try beat out the weeds for sunlight, water and nutrients, plant flowers, herb gardens, ground covers and more.

Organic Herbicides: if you’re not set on trying any of the above, organic herbicides do exist and they’re relatively easy to find in local garden supply and hardware stores. These are typically made from natural ingredients such as fatty acids and citrus acid. Before buying, always find out what weeds you’re dealing with and read the labels carefully. Just like chemical-based weed killer, always make sure you’re applying it correctly.

In the meantime, if you need help with mulching, planting or garden bed construction to help keep out those pesky weeds, the experts from Watersave Landscaping are only a phone call away.

Did you know that 40% of a household’s waste is food waste?

Starting a compost bin is one of the easiest ways to reduce your household’s waste and create nutrient rich soil that can be used throughout your garden. With so many different options and styles of compost bins available these days, the best part is that a compost bin no longer has to be an eyesore in your garden and can easily tie in with your landscaping design.

Whether you’re thinking about starting a compost in your backyard or have just recently started one, we thought we’d compile a quick list of the most important dos and don’ts when it comes to backyard composting.

Dos

• Always maintain an equal ratio of brown waste and green waste in your bin – green waste meaning food scraps and brown waste meaning paper, cardboard and straw
• Fill your compost with vegetable and fruit scraps, vegetable oil, pruning and leaves from your garden, tea bags, coffee grounds, toilet rolls, egg shells, flowers, pet hair, your hair, paper, cardboard
• Keep your compost aerated – so if you have a tumbling bin give it a spin at least once a week, and if you have a standard bin simply stir it with a pitchfork once a week
• Place your compost bin in a shaded and well-drained area away from too much sun
• Crush eggshells

Don’ts

• Do not fill your compost bin with animal waste, glossy magazines or coated cardboard, weeds that have seeds, treated timber, fat, diseased plants, metal
• Stay away from excessive amounts of meat and dairy waste as this can attract pests
• Do not include onion, garlic or any citrus scraps – this can repel earthworms and these are vital to the composting process
• Never pour chemical waste in your compost

Pro Tips

• If you don’t like the idea of walking outside every time you have food scraps (especially during the cooler months), keep a small container in your kitchen to keep your food scraps and empty it daily or every second day.
• It’s important to keep your compost moist to speed up the breakdown process. Soak the cardboard and straw before adding it to the pile, but don’t saturate it. You’ll know when your compost is ready when it begins to look like soil and smells earthy – that means you can now feed your flowers and vegie patch with this great, nutrient rich soil!

Composting is one of the easiest ways individuals can start making a positive impact on the environment. If you have any questions about the best ways to incorporate a compost in your landscaping design, or how you can create a sustainable garden, give the team at Watersave Landscaping a call today.

When it comes to landscaping and gardening, there is often a bit of upkeep required in order to keep your outdoor areas from becoming overgrown and unmanageable. Having the right tools in tow makes it much easier to do this, which is why we’ve created a list of must-have tools for those standard landscaping and gardening jobs.

Forks/Spades

Always a must for any landscaper, forks and spades help to splice the soil and turn it over. By cutting away heavier and tougher soil, it can prepare your garden for new plants to grow and flourish.

Hand Trowel

A good, sturdy hand trowel is a necessary addition to your landscaping tool kit or garden shed. It can be used for a number of jobs, including planting young plants, breaking up the earth, weeding, mixing fertiliser into the soil and smaller digging jobs. Handy tip — make sure you choose a trowel with a lightly coloured handle so as to not lose it within your garden beds!

Pruning Shears / Pruning Saw

If you are looking to cut some smaller branches off your trees or clean up shrubbery surrounding your house, then pruning shears are exactly what you need. The blades are usually strong enough to trim branches that are up to 2cm thick, making pruning shears an essential item for common cutting jobs in your garden. When your pruning shears simply can’t cut through those pesky branches, then you may need to whip out your pruning saw.

Lawn Mower

If you have natural grass around your landscape, then this next one is a no-brainer. Lawn mowers are the standard solution to cutting your grass, making the maintenance of your garden much easier. Buy one that is the best fit for your lawn and can be stored away easily in your shed!

Garden Hose

Keeping your garden hydrated is essential, especially with spring and summer right around the corner. Make sure that you have a longer length hose to reach all the plants in your garden bed. It’s better if it is lightweight and easy to carry, and you can easily get a wall mount to pack it away when not needed.

Wheelbarrow

Sometimes you need to haul a lot of materials all over your garden at once, keeping them next to you for easy access. For this reason, a wheelbarrow is one of the most vital pieces to have in that garden shed.

When it comes to the bigger jobs, ensure that your garden is up to scratch by getting help from the professionals.

Australia has a massive focus on preserving water, especially after we experienced years of drought. We got used to the water saving techniques, and it has become part of some everyday practices for many. Of course, this trickled into gardens and ways to have a thriving landscape without using excess water.

Mulching

Hot weather can naturally effect the moisture in soil and hasten evaporation. On a hot day, up to 70% of the water in soil can evaporate away. You can avoid this by including a top protective layer that covers the area, which can hold in moisture and save you water. Mulch, in particular coarse mulch, is one of the best products that you can use to do this. It helps supress water loving weeds, adds vital nutrients back into the soil and prevents evaporation.

Design Your Garden

There are a number of smart design principles that can be included into your garden which can meet your water-saving interests. This can include:

• Use plants that are natural to the environment. This will mean that the plant itself is tailored towards thriving.
• Building mounds around your trees or shrubs can capture water, which will help it to soak into the soil slower and hold the moisture for longer and reduce runoff.
• Employing an irrigation system in your garden can ensure that water is being evenly and consistently distributed into your garden bed.
• Include plants that need less water to live. This naturally means that you will be using less water, and your garden won’t look shrivelled in the process.

By having a professional designer help you to create you garden, and tailor it to use less water and save you money.

Know When to Water

We are all culprits to this. We see the first signs of withering in a plant and rush to it with vast amounts of water, and drown the plant and those around it for good measure. This is detrimental to the plant. Overwatering can:

• Leach nutrients from the soil which is valuable to the plant.
• Can hinder the oxygen levels of the plant, and increase the chance of roots rotting and disease growth.
• You are wasting water. It doesn’t benefit the plants health to be watered excessively.
• Overwatering can cause some plants to become dependent, which weakens the root systems and can lead to short lived plant life.

Save on that pesky water bill by ensuring that your garden is designed towards water saving. Not only will you reap the benefits, but you will have stronger habits which benefits your plants lives. Get in touch with the team at Watersave Landscaping to find out more.

In a busy and bustling lifestyle, it can be hard to find the time to create and maintain your landscape. The grass starts to become overgrown, whilst plants are shrivelling and dying. But for those that love outdoor entertaining, this can be embarrassing and detrimental. This is why we have put together a list of ways to convert your garden into a low maintenance area.

Synthetic Turf

One of the easiest ways to maintain your garden is by installing high quality synthetic turf. Not only does this have a real aesthetic, but it does not require the usual mowing or trimming that natural grass does. More than that, it takes no watering to have luscious grass all year round.

Hard Landscaping

Although they look pretty, flowers can be hard to maintain if you do not have the time or the knowledge to maintain the garden bed. Although they integrate an array of colours within your landscape, there are so many other ways to do this – such as through hard landscaping.

This can be done through paving and concrete colourations used, as well as through garden lighting and water features. Take your pick!

Native Australian Plants

The more native the plants are to the landscape, the easier they are to maintain. They are able to thrive in the landscape, and require less watering and feeding than exotic plants that aren’t suited to the Australian climate. Luckily, there are some incredible choices for plants native to Australia.

Irrigation System

Irrigation systems are the saving grace for those who don’t have the time to get into the garden as often as they would like to. They’re not only highly sustainable, but is the easiest way to ensure that your garden is hydrated. It saves you the time that it takes to water your garden, whilst also improving the growth of your plants due to the selected water levels that are being fed to the plants.

Slower Growing Plants

One of the best ways towards a low maintenance garden is by having slower growing plants. The way to do this is by avoiding plants that are known to grow vigorously, and instead move towards slower growing plants.

In order to try and gain a lower maintenance garden, get the knowledge and skills of experts behind you. Contact us at Watersave Landscaping to get your complimentary quotation on how to turn your landscape into a low maintenance area.

Winter isn’t the most pleasant time of the year, and most people would prefer to be curled up in a blanket with a hot drink than outdoors. Animals can do the same.

It may not be known, but your plants feel the cold too. Unlike us, they can’t just walk inside and crank the heater up. They’re stuck, left to feel the chill of the wind and rain. So, how can you tell that your plants are being badly affected by winter weather?

There are a multitude of signs that point towards damaged or brittle plants, and luckily, a range of solutions to ensure that your investment is stable.

What is Frost Burn?

As the name suggests, this looks like the outer areas of the trees have been burnt. If the foliage or stems appear as dried, or brown in colour, they are probably affected by winter burn. It is caused by the cells of the plants freezing and shrinking. Then, as temperatures gradually rise, the foliage will begin a thawing process. If this is slow, the plants tend to become dehydrated which leads to frost burn.

It is also caused by factors such as strong bursts of sunshine amongst frigid winter days.

Minimising the Damage

There are a number of steps you can take to help protect your plants again frost damage, and ensure that they make it to spring. These include: 

• Cultivating Susceptible Plants

Plants have climates in which they best thrive, and sometimes, we choose based on looks rather than suitability. It is important to choose plants to include in your garden that are best suited to the environmental elements it will live in. There are certain plants that will be instantly damaged when hitting low temperatures, which is a waste of money for you and a sore spot within you landscape.

• Opening Air Flow

This may seem like a counterproductive point, but it is important that your trees and shrubbery have a clear air flow. You need to ensure that plants of all heights have a clear pathway to feel air flow, as frost occurs harshly when they do not.

• Prune Before and After, Not During

Winter pruning should occur just before the season, at the end of autumn. You should avoid the next pruning until after the frost has settled and finished.

• Overhead Protection

If it is necessary to try and promote heat retention within your plants during winter, you can cover them with protective fabric. This can be done using a material such as hessian. Try to avoid the use of plastic coverings, as it doesn’t necessarily deter frost from forming, and can aid damage when hit by extreme sunlight in colder months.

Ensure that you have the correct plants and trees that will last you through the winter, and thrive within spring. At Watersave Landscaping, we have professional plant selection and protection services which will ensure that we select the right plant for the climate, and leave your garden looking fresh and healthy. To find out more, and get advice regarding solutions for your landscape today, get in touch.

We know, it’s getting colder in Melbourne. The crisp morning air has well and truly set in, as has the total avoidance of outdoors whenever necessary due to the constant fear of freezing. But for the gardeners and landscapers of the world, it is not easily avoidable to wander into nature, although it may be difficult to get enthusiastic about it when it’s cold and grey.

Even though it is cold, you do not want your garden to go untamed and unmanaged. Gardening has proven to be a therapeutic practice for many people, so put on a jacket and scarf and wander outside into your garden bed to tend to your plants. There are so many ways that gardening in the winter could improve your mood, from a light workout to a just getting fresh air. Make sure you stay on top of your gardening jobs over winter, despite the cold and rain.

1. Rake Those Leaves and Twigs Away

Grab the rake that has been collecting dust, and head outside! This is a job that can accelerate your heartrate, and keep you warm whilst you maintain your garden. Autumn and Winter are characterised by trees shedding themselves of leaves and twigs becoming brittle and falling from branches. Keep them out of your pathway and rake all of this away. It can be used as a natural mulch in your garden, or simply add it into your compost as a base.

2. Cut Away

As the tree branches become more visible over the Autumn/ Winter period, it is the perfect time to clean your trees of dead or crowded growth. This can also be done with shrubbery and plants, pruning and tidying the overall garden before the blooming Spring comes around.

3. Lawn Aeration

Aerating is highly beneficial for the overall growth and appearance of your lawn. The process is relatively easy, as it simply involves piercing small holes into the soil with either a garden fork or specific aeration tools. Aeration allows for water, air and nutrients to enter the soil, and greatly benefit the roots of the lawn, promoting stronger growth to occur in the coming months.

4. Plant Winter Veggies

Another fantastic way to get involved with your garden in the cold and dreary winter is to research, and plant, vegetables that are suited to Winter climates. Ensure that you clean your garden bed of weeds that may be present, and aerate the soil as illustrated above.

There are a number of veggies that are suited to Melbourne’s winter weather, including: cabbage, Asian greens, lettuce, rocket, spinach, carrots, celery, onions of various types, leek, radish and turnips.

5. Cosy Up your Outdoor Space

Whether it’s a covered over outdoor living space, or open air, ensure that you make it winter proof. Add some outdoor heating, whether it is portable or fixed, and ensure that you have a space that is welcoming despite the weather. Chuck some blankets into a water-proof storage case, and have a space to cosy up in with your family and friends.

Watersave Landscaping are the professional team working in residential and commercial landscapes. From designing your garden, upgrading your outdoor living area, or choosing and planting climate suited plants we are here to lend a hand. Get in touch to find out more.

It’s not hard to get a little overwhelmed when it comes to being environmentally conscious. With so much competing information, rules and trends, it’s difficult to know where to start to create an environmentally sound space.

Whether you’ve got an inner-city rooftop or expansive country gardens, there are some super easy tricks to put your mind at ease and create beautiful and sustainable landscaping solutions.

PLANT SELECTION

Plant Seasonal

If you’re a bit of a green thumb and enjoy tending to a vegetable patch, make sure you select vegetables, herbs and spices appropriate for each season.

Be Weather Wise

Consult your landscaper or local nursery to get an idea of what plants will thrive in your climate. Sure, you may love the tropical look of a frangipani tree, but chances are if you’re in in a semi-arid climate you’ll be left standing in front of a tree corpse scratching your head.

This is particularly important for lawns, choosing a lawn suitable for your climate can not only reduce your water usage, but can help minimise the use of toxic fertilisers, weed killer and pesticides.
NATURAL INSECTICIDES

From planting chives and basil to deter aphids, to DIY garlic and chilli sprays, there is an abundance of natural alternatives to the harmful toxins found in the average supermarket garden section. Talk to your landscaper about incorporating plants with natural insecticide properties, then do some research and get creative!
DECKS AND PAVING

In an increasingly time poor society, low maintenance spaces are growing in popularity. Not only does the incorporation of a decked or paved area mean less time manicuring lawns and garden beds, they create useable, designer entertainment areas that can be redecorated as trends change PLUS save on water and pesticide usage. For inspiration on beautiful paved areas and decking check out Watersave Landscaping’s portfolio.
IRRIGATION AND WATER USE

It may seem obvious, but often our main source of water is left untapped when it comes to landscaping. Rain, although scarce is some areas, is still a vital resource and when funnelled through effective irrigation channels can continue to nourish your garden long after it’s landed on the ground.

Whether you’re thinking of a redesign, moving into a new property or looking to jazz up a corporate space, these tips can get you on the way to creating a sustainable space. To discuss how Watersave Landscaping can help you create environmentally friendly area contact us on 0411 143 599.